Azerbaijan is the least LGBTI-friendly nation in Europe, according to ratings released by a leading rights organisation.

It is predominantly post-Soviet states, such as Azerbaijan, Russia and Armenia, which appear at the bottom of the rankings.

As the data from Statista shows, countries in eastern Europe have the worst scoring on laws, policies and practices affecting LGBTI communities, according to the ILGA's Rainbow Europe list.

The most LGBTI-friendly European nations were Malta, Belgium, the UK and Ireland.

After four years at the top of the Rainbow Europe list, the UK has fallen to third, a year after moving down to second.

The ILGA's Rainbow Europe list is an annual review of 49 European countries, ranked on a scale between 0 per cent (countries with gross violations of human rights and discrimination) and 100 per cent (countries which show respect of human rights and full equality).

Rainbow Europe ranks the countries on the bais of laws and policies with a direct impact on LGBTI people's human rights, under six categories: equality and non-discrimination; family; bias motivated speech/violence; legal gender recognition; freedom of assembly, association and expression; and asylum.